I pulled some Watermelon Radish today!

I pulled some Watermelon Radish today!

Sat Jul 09, 2011 3:58 pm

Here is a pic of two of them:

I have a bunch more to pull but I'm waiting for my niece to come over because she and my daughter love picking the root veggies. I sliced up these two and mixed them in with a salad for a nice flavor and an even cooler look. I cooked down the greens with some garlic and olive oil and they had a nice flavor as well. The ones still in the ground are bigger than these two so I'm excited to see how those look when I slice them.[/img]

just a warning about those seeds, the packet I had stated 35 days to harvest and the plants should have 2.5 to 3.5 inch roots. Those seeds were direct sown May 22nd, sprouted may 25th, and I just picked them today but most of them are not 2.5 to 3.5 inches. I picked them today so if you count the days from sprouting it's been 45 days, but they still haven't reached their full size. If you climate is similar to mine I'd suggest letting them sit in the ground longer than the 35 days on the package.

Thanks for the report on the Watermelon Radishes. I had no luck when I planted that variety. You have the same problems with "Days to Maturity" as I do. In a cooler climate it always takes more days to get there. Here 72 day tomatoes take close to 90, etc.

Now I'm a bit worried about the 75 day carrots I planted July 1st. My daughter might be taking baby carrots in her lunch box I guess.

The strange thing is the three other varieties of Radish I planted, White Icicle, Cherry Belle, and French Breakfast were all harvested on time. The one other mistake I may have made was spacing with these. I grew all my radishes in a SFG style bed this year. The SFG book recommends spacing radish 16 per sq foot, which worked fine for the other three varieties. I spaced these at 12 per sq. foot since I knew they'd be a little larger than the other types of radish, but next planting I think I'll just plant 9 per sq foot and see if they get larger. The book recommends 9 per sq foot for Turnip and Beet, and these are supposed to be about the same size.

In looking at my past plantings of turnips and beets, try as I will there will always be some spaces where they are pretty crowded and some where they are spaced better. It is pretty obvious that the ones with the most space are always the first to make a nice root.

Lately I have been experimenting with deliberately placing one seed at a time and getting the spacing right. The results are pretty amazing. Nearly every seed (that germinates) makes a nice root right off. A little seed goes a long way doing this too. Turnips get quite large, not just the root but the floret too. Just for fun plant one turnip and give it 18 inches square and let it grow full season.